[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

MUSEUMS RESTRUCTURING AND THE RE-ALIGNMENT OF HERITAGE IN
SOUTH AFRICA

INTRODUCTION

Ladies and gentlemen, I have chosen museum restructuring as the subject of my briefing. My presentation will thus deal with the latest developments in our endeavour to restructure our national museums in this country.

The process of restructuring the national museums should be understood within the context of the broad transformation of the country's structures and systems to be in line with democratic thinking that has enriched our country since 1994.

Museums, as heritage institutions, are important carriers of our cultures, traditions and total inheritance. In a finer analysis of things, they should be the resource centres where knowledge and information about our collective existence, cultural and bio-diversity history are readily available.

Museums are a type of places where our people, in many generations to come, should go to find each other and trace our origins, past and present, through scientific means.

South Africa is a country of cultural diversities. We therefore, strive everyday to create an atmosphere, in which cultural diversities are reflected in all our cultural institutions.

BACKGROUND

There are presently 20 national museums, called Declared Cultural Institutions. Most of these institutions are located in historically privileged urban centres and serve (or were meant to serve) a limited white constituency.

Policies of the past precluded these institutions from serving the socio-cultural interests of a vast majority of South Africa's population. As such,

Their collections, exhibitions, general activities and staffing do not historically reflect the population and cultural demographics of the country. Very important aspects of South African culture, heritage, science and technology have been neglected.

The White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage calls for a review of the national museums. The White Paper follows other widely consultative fora, like the ACTAG process in 1994 and 1995, which called for similar action about these institutions, namely the reviewing of the national museums.

After further consultative processes and setting up of a variety of committees, it was decided that national museums in Gauteng and the Western Cape should form two flagship museums, respectively.

An earlier view to devolve five other national museums; the William Humphreys Art Gallery in the Northern Cape, the War Memorial and the National Museums in the Free State and the Natal and Voortrekker Museums in KwaZulu-Natal was revisited at the beginning of this year. Subsequently, after extensive interaction with all the role players, a model was developed. The new model accommodates provincial aspirations while retaining funding obligations with the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.

The Institutions that form the Gauteng flagship are; National Cultural History Museum in Pretoria, the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria and the South African Military History Museum in Johannesburg. The position of the Foundation for Education, Science and Technology (FEST) is under consideration. Our recommendations have been communicated to FEST and, up to this point, our approach is that FEST will be part of the Gauteng Flagship.

In the case of the Western Cape the institutions are; the South African National Gallery, the South African Museum, the South African Cultural History Museum, the William Fehr Collection and the Michaelis Collection all in Cape Town.

The effect of restructuring of the governance system of these institutions will manifest itself in the following envisaged improvements:

* Customer / Public Service and Delivery. Governance, Management and Administration
* Service Delivery
* Human Resource Planning and Management
* Collections and Collections Management
* And ultimately, Financial Planning

New Councils will soon be appointed to oversee the micro-governance of these institutions. Councils are powerful instruments of micro-governance and micro-policy formulation within the institutions. Their terms of reference will be worked out as they will assume their responsibilities later this year. We expect that the Councils will emerge with micro-policies and governance systems that will see the creation and effecting of new images and cultures for our restructured museums. The appointment of Councils later this year will, therefore, mark an important milestone in the re-orientation of our national museum service.

HERITAGE LEGISLATION

While most of current restructuring of museums has occurred within the existing 1969 and 1989 Acts, it is important that a new overarching bill for all heritage will soon be debated in Parliament. This Bill, the National Heritage Bill, is an important instrument which will effect the re-aligning of heritage issues in this country. Through it, the new National Heritage Council, with three divisions, viz.:
* The National Archives Division
* The National Museums Division
* The South African National Heritage Division,
will come into existence.

Each of these divisions will have a managing or implementing arm, namely, the present National Archives for the Archives Division, the National Flagships and other national museums for the Museums Division and the South African Heritage Agency (a restructured National Monuments Council) for the Heritage Division.

The functions of the Heritage Council will be to:

* Co-ordinate the management of the national heritage, and lobby for funding of the sector from a variety of sources.

* Advise the Minister on national policies pertaining to archives, museums and heritage matters

* Establish priorities and criteria for the allocation of funds by developing and publishing three-year strategy plans for the assessment of funding applications

* Facilitate and promote national and international liaison between institutions involved in heritage management

* Establish and maintain a database on heritage information

The Bill itself;

* Gives a broader definition of places and objects of significance that includes the rich legacy of our living heritage, a remarkable departure from narrow and colonial definitions of the past
* Improves co-ordination in heritage management through the National Heritage Council
* Provides guidelines for the sustainable management of heritage resources for conservation and tourism by requiring conservation management plans
* Grants automatic protection of public monuments and memorials
* Protects heritage sites that may be affected by development, including mining and agriculture, by making impact assessments mandatory
* Provides for a register of heritage objects to prevent the export of culturally significant items without a permit

Through these initiatives a more co-ordinated approach to the issues of heritage will be set in motion. The isolation of heritage sectors from each other will soon be a thing of the past.

CONCLUSION

The process of museum restructuring should be seen within the context of realignment of heritage matters, broad national transformation, a quest to represent national diversity and nation building. Effective utilisation of available resources will be reprioritised so that delivery of this vital service will reach all our people.

I can point out that provinces are busy setting up provincial museum and heritage services which will link to national and local museums through legislation and other regulatory frameworks.

<EOD>